Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto won the Eiji Sawamura Award as Japanese pro baseball's most impressive starting pitcher on Monday, joining Hall of Famer Masaichi Kaneda as one of the only players to win the award three straight years.
Yamamoto, who is expected to move to MLB next season via the posting system, has led the Pacific League in strikeouts, ERA, wins and winning percentage for three straight seasons and is a strong candidate to win his third straight PL MVP award.
In a year when no pitchers met two of the seven benchmarks the selection committee uses as guidelines, 10 complete games and 200 innings, the 25-year-old Yamamoto beat out some stiff competition from DeNA BayStars lefty Katsuki Azuma.